Changing Faces of Sovereignty

Abstract

Sovereignty is one of the foremost institutions of our world: it has given political life a distinctive constitutional shape that virtually defines the modern era and sets it apart from previous eras. As A.P. d’Entrèves puts it: “The importance of the doctrine of sovereignty can hardly be overrated. It was a formidable tool in the hands of lawyers and politicians, and a decisive factor in the making of modern Europe.”1 And not only Europe: in the past century or two, sovereignty has become a cornerstone of modern politics around the world. It was originally an institution of escape from rule by outsiders and to this day it remains a legal barrier to foreign interference in the jurisdiction of states. Basic norms of the UN Charter (Articles 2 and 51) enshrine the principle of equal sovereignty, the doctrine of nonintervention, and the inherent right of self-defense.

Keywords

Europe Assure Turkey Conglomerate Nigeria

A sovereign power may choose to subscribe to limitations without ceasing to be sovereign.

For an argument that sovereignty is a bargaining resource that is being shared among EU states see Robert O. Keohane, “Hobbes’s Dilemma and Institutional Change in World Politics: Sovereignty in International Society,” in H-H. Holm and G. Sorensen (eds.), Whose World Order: Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War (Boulder, Co: Westview, 1995), pp. 165–86.Google Scholar

51.

Quoted by J.H.H. Weiler, “European Neo-constitutionalism: In Search of Foundations for the European Constitutional Order,” Political Studies, vol. XLIV (1996), pp. 520–21.Google Scholar